The Jardin du Lautaret, two thousand mountain flowers at 2,100 m.

The Lautaret is the pass linking the Oisans with Briançon, and high up, at 2,100 m, the University of Grenoble cultivates a garden of flowers from the world's mountains. It is the quiet visit in the valley: the one that suits children, light rain or the day after a long day on the glacier.

What it is

The garden belongs to Université Grenoble Alpes and the CNRS, and is also a research station. Its beds and rock gardens bring together some 2,000 species of mountain flowers from ranges around the world. Behind it the Meije appears with its glaciers, the same mountain you see from La Grave but from the east. There is also a small museum that opens with the garden.

When to go

It opens from the first weekend of June to the first weekend of September, every day from 10:00 to 18:00. Out of season it is closed, and the phone is only answered in those months.

How much it costs

General admission costs €9. €7 is paid by young people aged 12 to 18, students, job seekers, people with disabilities and groups of more than ten. Children under 12 and holders of some regional passes go in free. A season pass, the ambassador card, costs €16.

Guided visits for individuals are free and unbooked, until places run out, at 10:30, 14:30 and 16:00. On Thursday mornings in July and August there are one-hour visits to the laboratories, with booking.

Getting there

It is at the Col du Lautaret itself, in the commune of Villar-d'Arêne, beside the D1091. From La Grave it is a quarter of an hour by car, up the Romanche valley. The garden estimates an hour and a half from Grenoble, half an hour from Briançon and three quarters of an hour from Bourg-d'Oisans.